Preludes at the MIAM

Launched in 2021, this initiative provides the opportunity for artists to present their work in progress, followed by a discussion with the audience.

BALLET DES OMBRES

A performance by Catherine Gignac

Thursday, April 24, 2025, at 3:30 p.m.

Friday, April 25, 2025, at 7 p.m.

MIAM – Maison internationale des arts de la marionnette
30, Saint-Just Avenue
Montréal (Québec) H2V 1X8
514-270-2717

Ballet des ombres is a 45-minute artistic and poetic performance without words featuring live sand drawings relayed through a video projector. Moving in time with the music, Catherine creates ephemeral images in the sand. She works on a light table set before a live audience, as her creations come to life on a video projection screen. This creative fusion takes the audience on a magical visual adventure.

In a fast-paced world of technology and performance, Ballet des Ombres offers us a chance to rediscover slowness, the essentiality of nature, and contemplation, set against a backdrop of classical music, tango and opera. The use of sand as a medium allows for a continuous transformation of the images, creating a sense of surprise for the audience, who remain captivated from beginning to end.

Sand drawing lives in the moment. It has a random, ephemeral quality: each drawing is unique and changes from one performance to the next. Sand gives an impression of fragility and a particular grain to the image, making this art form all the more expressive.

[. . .] Catherine gave the story an extraordinary emotional power and made me cry at each of her appearances. I understood what it means to admire a work of art to the point of feeling that strange emotion in the presence of art, that moment when art transcends words to touch the soul. . .

– Stéphanie Girardeau, spectator, Frétillant et Agile

Language: Without words
Running time: 45 minutes
Technique: Sand theatre
Audience: Adults, accessible to youth 10 years +

TICKETS

FREE

Reservations required

MIAM – Maison internationale des arts de la marionnette
30 Saint-Just Avenue
Montréal (Québec) H2V 1X8
514-270-2717

TICKETS FOR THURSDAY, APRIL 24 – 3:30 p.m.

TICKETS FOR FRIDAY, APRIL 25 – 7 p.m.

VIDEO

ARTIST

Catherine Gignac is a multidisciplinary artist exploring the intersection between visual arts and shadow theatre. A sand theatre designer and performer, she is a pioneer in the field in Canada and has established it as her specialty. Catherine holds a bachelor’s degree in French literature and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal. She also studied visual arts in Florence, Italy, in 2023. She is currently working with storyteller Jocelyn Sioui on Frétillant et Agile (sand theatre design and performance). The show premiered on October 31, November 1 and 2, 2024, at Espace le vrai monde? in Montréal, and is currently on tour across Québec.

Catherine presented her solo show Rêve de sable at the OUF! Off Festival de Casteliers (2024) and at the Festival Marionnettes Plein la rue (2024). In 2023, she was a finalist for the Bourses ForCGal, which recognize innovative visual artists, for her work Carnaval. Ballet des ombres is her latest creation.